For The Love Of Port

A rather flat purple hue with a wide burgundy rim showing a brownish tinge. The nose has a slightly baked and meaty character to it and displays notes of prune, cherry, dried blueberries, and some noticable spirit. Pleasant dark berry fruit on the palate, moderately sweet, and showing just a dash of that cocoa character that I always seem to notice in Dow's vintages. The mid-palate takes on a spicy/spirity edge and drops off into a rather short finish, leaving me a bit disappointed. An enjoyable port, especially considering the affordable price, but doesn't stack up to the to the level of excellence that I'm accustomed to from Dow's. I would drink this one in the near term.

And your last sentence says it all. I believe Bomfim is made to be had, while the big and prominent Dow "classic" VP is the one to age for the long haul. Nice note. In 1995 Bomfim was still using autovinification and I think that was a "negative" when using only one Quinta's fruit.